Review by: Brian Pipa

After 10 years as the biggest and most popular online flight simulator, Air Warrior finally makes it to a boxed version for the masses in Air Warrior II. With Air Warrior II, you can fly the online skies that you’re used to from Air Warrior, fly solo offline and hone your skills, or battle one-on-one with modem play. The online mode requires an Air Warrior account with AOL, Compuserve, Delphi Internet, or the Earthlink Network. More online services are on the way.

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Review by: Brian Pipa

Banzai Bug is a flight simulator with a twist – you don’t fly a plane, you fly a bug! Banzai Bug is a wise-cracking insect with an attitude that belies his small size. Banzai finds himself trapped in the exterminator’s house, and the only way to get out is to help the resident bugs in their quest to rid the home of the evil Biggies (humans). Banzai is a top-notch pilot and the only one that can destroy the Robobugs and collect the disgusting ingredients for the Stinkulator, the ultimate weapon to eradicate the Biggies.

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Review by: Brian Pipa

All new from Microforum, this essential collection of levels, cheats, hints and tactics is the most comprehensive ever assembled for the decade’s hottest game – Quake! With a huge collection of hints, a directory of web servers where you can challenge other Quake warriors, Dark Hour is bringing you more Quake than ever before, and taking carnage to new levels!

Having just received the full version of Quake for Christmas (thanks Jennifer!), I was pleasantly surprised to find Microforum’s Dark Hour too in my reviewer’s mailbox. Dark Hour adds 23 new levels to Quake – 13 multiplayer levels and 10 solo levels. The 10 solo levels are linked together to provide, essentially, a new episode. Start on the Valhalla level and work your way up, with the levels increasing in difficulty as you go. The 23 new levels incorporate 50 all-new, original textures to give the levels a new and different look. Unfortunately, their are no new monsters or weapons. ( read more… )

Review by: Brian Pipa

The two hottest gaming genres right now are 3D/Action and Real-time/Strategy. Combine these two and what do you get? You get Muzzle Velocity, a new title from Digi4fun that combines strategy war-gaming with the ability to jump into a 3D view where you can control the action through the eyes of any tank, vehicle, or soldier on the frontline.

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Review by: Brian Pipa

“In the Sacred Mirror of Kofun (SMoK) you are Chris Young, race car driver, ace Gulf War Pilot and adventurer-for-hire who can navigate the South Pacific blind-folded. As Chris, you’ll pilot a futuristic boat across the Pacific and dive in your personal scuba-sub to explore intricately beautiful coral reefs and the silent hulks of sunken WW II ships. You’ll sleuth out the mystery behind the disappearance of a famous scientist, and track down an enigmatic Japanese artifact, the Sacred Mirror of Kofun.”

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Review by: Brian Pipa

Prince Xizor is the Lord of the Black Sun crime ring and son of a Falleen king. Because Darth Vader is responsible for the deaths of 200,000 Falleen, Xizor would like nothing more than to see the Dark Lord ruined. In order to foil Vader’s attempt at turning Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the force, Xizor plans to have Luke assassinated. Princess Leia has hired you, Dash Rendar, captain of the Outrider and mercenary maverick, to protect Luke and stop Xizor. ( read more… )

Review by: Brian Pipa

You invested your cash in the full version of Quake. You’ve completed all of the episodes on nightmare difficulty using only the axe. Your clan kicks major butt. The mere mention of your name brings shudders to deathmatchers everywhere. What’s a Quaker to do now? Try Shrak, the first total conversion of Quake. With 9 awesome new weapons, 9 bizarre new monsters, 21 new levels (deathmatch and Capture-The-Flag, too), new sound FX, and a new digital soundtrack, Shrak promises to bring some new blood to good old Quake.

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Review by: Brian Pipa

“Free your soul from the boredom of ordinary 3D games and escape to a world where intelligence, skill and agility are your most powerful weapons. Prepare to face your greatest fears as Soultrap takes you into a deadly nightmare world of intense terror and lethal surroundings. Some features of the game: 360 Degrees of freedom, First person view, plus a variety of third person camera angles, 11 heart pounding levels, numerous weapons including: axes, ray gun, dynamite, boomerang gun.”

The storyline is that you, Malcom West, are plagued by ( read more… )

Review by: Brian Pipa

You are Lara Croft, wealthy aristocrat and part-time adventurer. You set out on a quest to find one of the
three pieces of the ancient Atlantean Scion, a talisman of incredible power. After discovering the fragment, things get ugly, Lara finds herself face to face with one of Natla’s hired goons. Using her cunning wits and athletic strength, Lara escapes! As she delves into the reasons why Natla would double cross her, she uncovers a mystery that reaches back before the dawn of recorded time to the treachery that destroyed the Atlantean civilization and the disasters that struck the world when it fell. Enter the Tomb Raider world in 15 massive 3D environments within four lost civilizations: Vilcabamba, Labyrinth, Egyptian, and Atlantean.

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Review by: Brian Pipa
Published: March 11, 1998

I’ll admit it — I’m not the biggest fan of puzzle-type games anymore, now that I have a 3Dfx card and I have become hopelessly addicted to Quake deathmatches. However, back in the old days I was known to really get into certain puzzle games and I can still play a mean game of Tetris. One such puzzle game that I spent way too much time playing was Mahjongg. I first started playing it in college, since our Unix/X-Windows system had X-Mahjongg available at every terminal. Later, when I got my first PC (a screaming 386sx/16 with 4 MB RAM) I downloaded a shareware version of Mahjongg and wasted even more time playing that. ( read more… )

Review by: Brian Pipa
Published: February 26, 1998

When you think of fighting games, the PC does not immediately spring to mind as the platform of choice. Looking at our fighting games demo list, you see that there has been only a handful of games released, and an even smaller handful worth playing at all. Nightmare Creatures from Activision takes a different approach than most — it takes the adventuring and wandering of a game like Tomb Raider and combines it with the close combat fighting of a game like Virtua Fighter. ( read more… )

Review by: Brian Pipa
Published: February 23, 1998

As tempting as it is, I will resist the urge to sprinkle this review with mindless pirate sayings like “shiver me timbers,” “blow me down,” and “swab the decks.” Shipwreckers! (or Overboard! for our readers across the Pond) is the latest game from Psygnosis that requires a 3D accelerator. It seems there is an evil pirate (is there any other kind?) named Blowfleet that is feared by many and hated by all. His treasure is extensive and his navigational skill is unmatched. You take on the role of a rival pirate, looking to unseat Blowfleet as the worst of the land, and take from the buccaneer his precious treasure. ( read more… )

Review by: Brian Pipa
Published: January 4, 1998

Following hot on the heels of the most popular movie of 1997 is MIB: The Game. Gamers can play as Agent J, K, or L and help them in their attempt to rid the Earth of the scum of the universe. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, you’ll be able to jump right into the game, since only the first mini-episode loosely follows the beginning of the movie’s plot — the rest of the game is a new story altogether in the MIB universe. ( read more… )

Review by: Brian Pipa
Published: December 5, 1997

X-men: Ravages of the Apocalypse joins the select few Quake total conversions (TCs) that have actually been released in stores. While Shrak and Malice brought a brand new storyline and new characters to Quake, X-men is the first commercial conversion to bring familiar characters. The X-men are one of the most popular comic book characters in recent memory and have an insanely huge following all over the world. Now you can jump into the world of the mutant superheroes in the familiar setting of Quake. ( read more… )

Review by: Brian Pipa
Published: December 5, 1997

The last Zork game I played was Zork III on my Commodore 64. Boy, things have come a long way. Zork Grand Inquisitor (ZGI) takes us back to those familiar places in the Great Underground Empire, like Flood Control Dam #3 and the White House, but this time in full graphical splendor. For those who don’t know, the Zork games were text adventures (remember those?) that were insanely popular in the 80′s. If you haven’t ever played Zork or another text adventure, Activision has released Zork I, II, and III and even a brand new Zork text adventure to commemorate the release of ZGI. These text adventures are available to download from Activision’s website. ( read more… )